


Pictures of Pagan Russia

by littledust



Category: Black Swan (2010), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Crossover, Crossover Pairings, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-05-04
Packaged: 2018-01-21 23:37:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1568087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littledust/pseuds/littledust
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first and only time Rosa ever pines for anyone, it's a girl in ballet class.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pictures of Pagan Russia

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aphrodite_mine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aphrodite_mine/gifts).



> Thank you for the awesome prompts, dear recipient! I hope you enjoy the crossover that surprised even me! No actual pictures of pagan Russia were involved in creating this fic, as the title comes from "Rite of Spring" by Stravinsky.

The first and only time Rosa ever pines for anyone, it's a girl in ballet class. Her name is Rachelle and she's five feet of muscle, built more like a gymnast than a ballerina. When one of the boys struggles to lift her, sad little biceps quivering, she casts him a look of absolute contempt and tells him to hit the gym.

Rachelle catches Rosa staring and her scowl deepens. "What?"

Rosa doesn't want to make a habit of answering questions addressed to her, so she just shrugs and turns away. Maybe a drink from her water bottle will kill the sudden flurry of butterflies in her stomach. After she takes a swallow, a quick glance to the left tells her that Rachelle was watching.

This goes on for a truly stupid amount of time before either of them have an actual conversation. (Not that Rosa is _intimidated_. She just doesn't feel like talking to Rachelle in case she says something stupid and Rachelle just casually kicks her off the planet with one of her amazing legs.)

"How did you get into dancing?" Rachelle asks while Rosa is stuck waiting to partner with Luis, the one guy tall enough to be her match or whatever.

"Our school was supposed to go on a field trip to _The Nutcracker,_ but someone screwed up the ticket order and we all went to _Rite of Spring_ instead." Rosa smirks at the memory. The nuns must have figured that all ballet was Jesus-approved. "The choreography was weird and parts of it were creepy. I loved it."

Rachelle's grin, started at the name of the ballet, becomes wider. "Yeah, you're pretty creepy and weird. I like that."

There's not a whole lot of pining after that. One more conversation, this one about how badass a Black Swan dance of triumph would be at the end of _Swan Lake_ , and they start making out in the dressing rooms after class. Rachelle likes to pull Rosa's hair. The first time she does it, Rosa moans so loudly they almost get caught. Definite, then: she likes girls as much as she likes boys.

They never make anything official. Rachelle is a real deal ballerina. A few months later, she nails an audition for an actual company. Her eyes light up when she says, "I get to tour the _country_."

"Happy for you," Rosa says, and kisses Rachelle like she means it.

The real pining comes after Rachelle leaves. Rosa quits ballet, flirts a little with smoking, and makes out with a couple of bad decisions. If Rosa's heart were a fist, the knuckles would be scraped raw, like she's been punching something she shouldn't have.

*

So she recognizes the signs in Jake, who's pining for the first time and possibly even worse at it than she was. He gets back from his big undercover mission and hardly says anything about his role in the arrests. "Top secret," he keeps claiming, and then deliberately not staring at Amy, who is still dating what's-his-name.

Rosa slams her wallet down on Jake's desk. (It has spikes on it, so it makes a pretty impressive thud.) "We're going on stakeout. I'll buy the snacks."

Jake leans back in his chair, resting his interlaced hands on his stomach. He still does it even though Gina caught him practicing his "casually not listening to you moves" in the break room and posted over a hundred photos of it on Instagram. "Not that I go through anyone's case files, but I know for a fact you don't have any cases that require a stakeout."

"So we'll drive to a sketchy 7-11 and wait for a drug deal to go down." Rosa narrows her eyes, which once made a perp literally drop his knife and start sobbing. "You need to talk to somebody. I'll listen to your lovelorn crap if you let me play my angry music on the way."

"But your angry music is all weird classical stuff with lots of timpani!"

Rosa lifts an eyebrow. "You know what timpani are called?"

"Took a guess and I nailed it." Jake lifts a hand for a high five. Rosa stares at him until he slowly lowers his hand. His expression says kicked puppy dog, though his eyes promise there's still potential for jackassery. It makes Rosa want to hit him, but gently.

"When I was 16, a girl broke my heart. I didn't understand what was happening and I handled it badly," Rosa mutters, pocketing her wallet. "Get your goddamn car."

Jake's eyes widen in actual surprise, actual because he only lets it show for a second. "Let's catch us some drug dealers."

*

It's a relief when the drug deal finally goes down, even more of one when the second one takes off, because Jake is _still_ going on about Amy. Give the guy enough Red Bull and Snickers and you'll have to suffer through 20 minutes of _I know that this is real because I want her to be happy and not in a creepy Boyle way so I'm avoiding her forever until I can stop wedding dressing her with my eyes. It's like… the opposite of undressing her with my eyes, not that she isn't beautiful. I guess you can tell, huh?_

The sight of a little pill baggie is the real meaning of beauty, as far as Rosa is concerned. She sprints out of the car after the second perp. Helping someone through their pining involves a lot of nodding, listening, and comfort food. Jake probably doesn't need to know that Rosa absolutely would make out with Amy, if she could ever learn how to unwind and it wouldn't, like, break her friend's heart.

Work, or maybe Jake's sugar trip into Overly Honest City, shakes something loose in Rosa. She hasn't been on a date since she called it quits with the most recent ex-boyfriend. That night, she goes for a deep burgundy tank top instead of the usual black, then heads off to the Indigo. It's been too long since she kissed a woman.

Rosa walks in and she's the only one in the damn bar aside from the bartender, who's pretty in a girl next door kind of way, if the girl next door went through a lesbian haircut phase. A glance at Rosa's watch tells her it's almost 5 AM. Shit. The stakeout felt at least 24 hours long, but long shifts at work always mess with her sense of time.

"Technically we're closed, but I won't tell if you don't," the bartender says. Her smile is gentle, full of lots of white teeth. "What'll it be?"

"Just gimme something of whatever you have on tap," Rosa says. "This is New York. Your customers actually go home before you close?"

"Not every Tuesday night can be a party." The bartender slides her a glass of dark beer, then frowns quizzically at Rosa. "This might be a strange question, but did you ever dance ballet?"

What happens at lesbian bars stays at lesbian bars. "Yeah," Rosa says. The beer slides cold and perfect down her throat. "A long time ago."

The bartender laughs. "So did I! I'm Nina, by the way."

"Rosa." Real names aren't necessary, but what the hell. Rosa talks about Rachelle for the first time in years and then gets hit on by a tiny lesbian ex-ballerina with a pixie cut. Whatever the odds are, they're hilarious. Besides, Nina is cute. "So why'd you quit?"

"Too much violence, or maybe not enough." Nina's smile wavers for a moment, then straightens itself out. "You know how dancers are. The service industry is nothing."

"Yeah, well, I'm a cop." Rosa drinks the beer too fast. She can feel the warmth in her face, little bubbles fizzing in her stomach. She touches Nina's hand. "You closed now?"

Rosa never hears her answer, because they're kissing instead.


End file.
